THE DAILY BLADE: Coakley’s Campaign Croaking
Having put his prestige on the line to campaign with Creigh Deeds and Jon Corzine in last fall’s gubernatorial races in VA and NJ, President Barack Hussein Obama was humiliated when voters in both states were well able to resist his charms and elected the Republican challenger. Not wanting a three-peat, the president kept his distance from MA Attorney General Martha Coakley (D) in the special election for “the people’s seat.” Even as State Senator Scott Brown (R) started closing in on Coakley, Obama thought he could phone it in.
But then, with less than a week before voters go to the polls, the unthinkable (to the Dems, in any case) happened: A new Suffolk University/7 News poll shows Coakley trailing Brown 46 percent to 50 percent. With Brown having made the race into a referendum on Obamacare, 64 percent of voters said that if Coakley went to Washington they expected that she would “toe the party line” – and a Boston Globe poll indicates that independents have a problem with this.
So all of a sudden, Obama decides to accept Coakley’s “invitation” to campaign with her in what The New York Times characterizes as “a last-ditch effort to avert a debacle” that is “fraught with political peril.” Apparently it was an invitation he could not refuse, because The Times adds that Obama’s advisers felt he had nothing to lose by campaigning for Coakley in MA because “[his] fortunes were already tied to the outcome of the race.”
But just as with Deeds, before the first vote is cast they are already coming up with face-saving talking points on why Coakley lost, reports The Washington Examiner’s Byron York.
Editorial Note: A new Rasmussen poll suggests that voters in NJ don’t appear to have buyer’s remorse over electing Republican Chris Christie, with 57 percent having a favorable opinion of the Governor-elect – an increase of eight points from right after the election. It’s like they’re telling their blue state brethren in MA, “Come on in, the water’s fine!”
Helping Haiti
In the aftermath of a natural disaster, knaves and fools divide the world.
First, the fools: The Daily Telegraph unearthed this gem from actor Danny Glover, who opined: “When we see what we did at the climate summit in Copenhagen, this is the response, this is what happens, you know what I’m sayin’?” (video) No, Danny, we don’t know what you’re sayin’ – do you?
It’s not the goddess Gaia who’s wreaking vengeance on Haiti, but The Big Guy himself, says televangelist Pat Robertson, because the island has been "cursed" ever since it made a "pact to the devil" to rid itself of the French. Wanna bet someone’s already made a voodoo doll of Robertson and sewed the lips shut?
Now, the knaves: Keith Olbermann tried to politicize the disaster by speculating what would happen to survivors of a natural disaster of similar magnitude in the U.S. without Obamacare.
And scam artists started sending out spam solicitations even before the ground stopped shaking. Here are tips on how to steer clear of the knaves. For a list of reputable charities you can safely donate to, consult these sources:
† Give.org
Editorial Note: A friend of this blog reminds The Stiletto that Armenians know first-hand the human and economic toll of a massive earthquake and the despair and devastation that Haitians will contend with for years to come, as well as the outpouring of generosity and goodwill towards the victims from around the world, and asked that this information be shared:
The Diocese of the Armenian Church of America (Eastern) is asking its parishes to hold a special collection for Haitian earthquake relief on Sunday, January 17, 2010. Alternatively, people can use this link on the Diocesan website to make a credit-card donation on a secure server. Every penny of the collected funds will go to the relief effort in Haiti, via Church World Service, the humanitarian aid arm of the National Council of Churches.
Update: Underscoring the importance of donating only to trustworthy and experienced humanitarian aid providers, The Washington Post reports that an analysis of the tax returns filed by Wyclef Jean's Yele Haiti Foundation - which already raised more than $1.5 million for earthquake relief – “raises questions about how it has spent money in the past, with administrative expenses that appear to be higher than comparable charities and payments to businesses owned by the musician and a board member, including $100,000 for a performance by Jean at a 2006 benefit concert.” Dean Zerbe, former tax counsel to the Senate Finance Committee, tells the paper: "It seems clear that a significant amount of the monies that this charity raises go for costs other than providing benefits to Haitians in need. It brings real caution for donors that want to help in Haiti that they might want to take a harder look at this organization but also consider the significant number of charities that have been doing good work in Haiti that don't have these question marks."
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